Ever wonder how you can be a great remote leader?
The move towards remote working will tremendously change the idea of corporate leadership. However, managing people who work from home is more complex than people who come to the office every day. Moreover, the projects conducted at home may have mixed results; therefore, you might be skeptical about the whole arrangement as a leader. With so many employees working outside the physical confines of the office, it becomes even more important to implement clear guidelines and boundaries. As a team leader, it’s your job to make sure everyone knows how they’re going to work together to achieve their goals. Following above are remote leadership skills:
1. Communication
Communication is the most fundamental skill any leader, especially, in marketing should have in abundance. How else is your team going to understand what you are saying? As a result, make sure you reach out to various members via email, text, facetime, and calls throughout the project.
Secondly, set up a schedule for regular check-ins. Sometimes, your team members may not be available if you call them spontaneously at any time of the day. The traditional phone calls also act as a form of encouragement to keep them motivated and attain their designated objectives.
Thirdly, it is never too late to improve your communication skills if you are at a loss. For instance, there are several free communication skills courses online. Moreover, there are excellent communicators at your workplace who can serve as your mentors. After all, leaders ought to get respect for subordinates to take their instructions seriously.
2. Caring
Compassion goes a long way in securing both the confidence and willingness to work. However, working at home is extremely challenging for parents and toddlers. Moreover, the pandemic has affected so many families' structures and has led to several losses to add salt to injury. Ultimately, you will need to create flexibility in adjusting deadlines and the work routine. For example, if one of your team members is willing to work at night, you should be more than willing to make it happen. In the end, your adjustments should promote peak performance rather than stringent regulations on time.
Emotional support is also vital in these difficult times because of the endless frustrations and isolation your team members face for the first time in human history. Although you won't understand individual problems, make it known that you are available at all times for support and guidance. Only then will your employees feel free to open up about any challenges affecting their performance.
3. Organization
Excellent organization is the road towards efficient leadership. With remote working comes extra tasks such as creating check-in schedules and assigning work daily. Usually, such paperwork would be on a team member's office or desk, but now, you will need to send it via email.
There are also metrics to assess everyone's attendance and performance throughout the project. First, plan your days because such assessment needs a lengthy analysis of every individual's daily contributions. Then, ensure no one had more work than the other. Nonetheless, the work shouldn't become a burden to you or hinder your overall managerial job description. Instead, recruit a dependable team member or use your assistant to track the performance on your behalf.
4. Positivity
The atmosphere should also have a positive connotation of good performance. Please do not be tempted to constantly complain about your team, even if it encounters challenges along the way. Challenges and mistakes are part of every job.
In addition, this is a period of isolation and detachment from each other. Therefore, use your authority to restore some joy and peace in your team's daily activities. The general anxiety around the pandemic shouldn't get reflected in your leadership style. So, threatening a team member with retrenchment is not wise in a remote working scenario because it may divide their attention to find a new job. Positive energy in a team always translates to good results. Therefore, despite any disagreements amongst project members, ensure you restore cooperation and a good attitude. There is no hope for a group with hate for each other to succeed.
5. Listening
A great leader always speaks last. Your purpose is to ensure every single member is heard and reassured. None of the team members deserves any mistreatment from other colleagues. Therefore, listen and offer solutions to the minor disputes among your team members. Furthermore, be apt to listen to any suggestions from the team on how to improve the project. Since you are a team, everyone has the right and authority to input a project. Leaving out your team in the decision-making about the project will most certainly lead to project failure. After all, you can only be a good leader to a team according to their needs. You cannot lead a group based on your own needs and assumptions.
6. Informality
Professionalism is constant for both remote and on-site workers. It is up to you to lead by example and provide the model through zoom meetings as a leader. For example, set up a soundproof office space in your home away from all the pets and children to use for official meetings. Despite the need for such an environment, a minor informality wouldn't hurt. Your team should see you in your comfort zone eating or making jokes. The remote setup should reflect the office’s work ethic, but a few tricks and stories here and there will make the project more enjoyable, although you are miles apart. For example, have a meeting at a resort as a team. The ambiance is calming and fun, and your team could use it once in a while to prevent burnout. Furthermore, if you constantly call for complaints, your team members could get tempted not to pick your calls. All in all, being liked is a significant part of becoming a successful remote leader.
While everyone is working toward the same goal, your team members are all different. They have different mindsets, different cultural values, and they come from different places. By factoring in these various characteristics, you’ll have an easier time getting your message across and making sure everyone feels comfortable. Get started now with Recruit Hero and start hiring top talents. Enjoy a 14-days Free Trial of Professional Plan. Do follow our Facebook, LinkedIn, and Youtube channels for more.